I bought an 89 Bronco II about 3 months ago with 150,000 and am currently trying to build it in the safest and cheapest manner i can. i am not looking to run moab or the Rubicon trail anytime soon but want something that i can drive every day and have fun with on the weekend.

i paid $1000. i thought that was a fair deal, nothing fenominal but fair.
i picked up the used explorer coils for the front $35
hoping they will raise the front back to stock height, maybe a little higher.
Uniden PC66-$25
this will get mounted after the exterior is done for the summer. setting up the Cb should be fairly inexpensive, a good project to keep me busy for part of the school year.

A picture of a custom built (hacksawed) wrench i used to hold the nut on the back side of the front spring pockets when i installed the explorer Leafs.

i would like to get a grill guard on the front before school starts to mount my lights and cb antenna on. i will also need it in place before i mount the tow hooks. should be able to straighten out front bumper when i do all that.

finally i found a roof rack for $105 shipped i plan on mounting to the roof to hold a full sized spare. and hopefully give me a place to put a deer this fall.

i was also thinking of putting 1" blocks in the rear and hocky pucks under the coils while things are loose, mostly because it is cheap and would help with rubbing issues.

Has anybody ever used hockey pucks as coil spacers?
Are they safe?
they must be as storong if not stronger than polyurithane spacers.

when you submit any feedback just keep in mind three things
1 its not an expensive jeep it only cost me $1000
2 i dont plan on running Drumond island anytime soon (with this)
3 i dont have the deepest pockets, i am 18 i graduated in the spring, and just quit my job to go to college where i will have even less money to work with.

instaled Explorer coils yeserday. PITA, sombody in TRS said to use a 1-1/8" combo wrench. garbage. i destroyed the first nut doing so. i believe it is either a 28mm or 1-1/16. after mauling the first nut i just torched the coils off and hammered a 27mm impact socket onto the nut and lit it up. a short time and alot of WD-40 later they were off. to reattach i couldn't find a 27mm wrench so i had to buy a 1-1/16" wrench which fit nicely.

in the end i got the coils on in 4 hours by myself and they look and ride good. the new coils gave me a 2" lift in the front. now the back sits an inch lower. Now, since the u-bolts are fresh i can slip some 2" spacers in no problem so the rear rides 1" high. should look good and eliminate all rubbing issues, completely. Overall things are going quite well.

put the blocks in last night. looks alot better. will need new shocks soon. stock wont allow full flex, besides they are worn out any way. also had it washed but it rained and i live on dirt. waste of $5.

next i need to put a new muffler and sparkplugs in than i can mount a brush guard, lights and tow hooks should look cool. i am going to buy a black powdercoated jcwhitney bumper mount grill and brush guard mainly so i have a place to mount lights, i also think it looks good. I am also going to weld a tab to mount a cb antenna and put some kind of black finish on it. reviews say that if you dont put something on it the welds will begin to rust. already have everything except the guard.

keep up the good work. As far as the coil nuts ive always used a deepwell 1 1/8 socket, long extension through the top of the coil bucket down through, and a breaker bar. Sticking a wrench through the coils SUCKS!

i tried the 1-1/8 and it stripped the crap out of one nut, before i decided to torch the springs and hammer a 27mm impact socket on. i believe the nut is a metric. when i level it out a little (thinking .5"-1" up front) i'll buy new nuts for the studs. on second thought i could just use a your method with 27mm since i resized the nut. either way i'll meed to buy four new shocks before i can redo it all.

well actually before i did the springs my front wheels looked like this / \ not good, new springs got them pretty close to straight and leveling it out should still allow for propper alignment, if i ever make it a high enough priority to dish out the money. wont do it if i dont think it is necessary.